Growth, yield and seed protein content of Faba bean (Vicia faba) subject to seed inoculation by its root nodulating rhizobial strains

Abstract

Faba bean (Vicia faba L) is a protein rich legume crop which capable to fix atmospheric nitrogen in association with rhizobium bacteria. Present study was conducted to evaluate symbiotic effectiveness of isolated rhizobial strains by pot experiment at field conditions. Experiment was conducted during 2019–2020 at the Bangladesh institute of Nuclear Agriculture, Bangladesh. In this study sixteen rhizobial strains with two controls were used as treatments named Faba-1, Faba-2, Faba-3, Faba-6, Faba-8, Faba-9, Faba-10, Faba-11, FM-1a, FM-4a, FM-4b, FM-4c, FM-4f, BL-129, BL-153, BL-640, control-1 (without nitrogenous fertilizer and rhizobial strain) and control-2 (nitrogenous fertilizer without rhizobial strain) were used. Different parameters related to growth and yield viz., chlorophyll content, number of nodules/plant, nodule dry weight and dry matter weight plant−, Number of branches/plant, Number of pods/plant, Number of seeds/pod and 100-seed weight were higher in the inoculation with Faba-2 compared to others. Subsequently, the highest seed yield (7.33 g/plant) and protein content (33.63%) were found from inoculation with Faba-2 followed by FM-1a and Faba-10. Among the tested rhizobial strains, 66.67% strains showed better performance over absolute control while 44.4% strains showed high performance than nitrogenous control and only 27.74% showed lower performance than two control due to the “selfish character” of rhizobia. So, the strain Faba-2 appears as the promising strain to use as bio-fertilizer as the means of restoring soil fertility and reduction of the use of chemical nitrogenous fertilizers in Faba bean cultivation in Bangladesh.